


It's the END of the WORLD as we KNOW IT

by GraceEliz



Category: Batman - All Media Types, War of the Worlds (2005 Spielberg)
Genre: Based off the 2005 film, Gen, Happy Ending?, ages have been changed, freeform poetry/blank verse, in the style of sara crossan actually, not a happy ride
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-09-29 18:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraceEliz/pseuds/GraceEliz
Summary: The machines came out of the ground.They turned people into dust.He has a family.





	1. Machine

**Author's Note:**

> I am...sorry, I guess. Not really. The really sad bit will be in chapter two.

_One  
_

Today his sons and daughter come home,  
Home to the large house that is all that is left of his life before his wife.  
His younger sons will be ecstatic, his older daughter cannot wait for her twin;  
He is waiting for his best friend who is his oldest son.  
Six children feels like too many and not enough  
Like he should be helping more of them  
Despite the fact he can barely provide enough food for his six-year-old,  
And his older daughter has never truly needed his help but even she is hungry.  
His sons enter his house in a rattle of boots and suitcases and guns (he finches to hear) thrown on the old table,  
Cass squeals in glee and Damian hurls himself at Dick and he can hear Steph shrieking that they’re home and is the kettle on.  
He pushes his melancholy aside because Cass doesn’t like his sadness  
His children are home!  
He rejoices to see them filling the sitting room,  
Bags and boots and yes there are the guns he distrusts  
Scattered on the pitted table like so many pebbles.  
“Dad!”  
Even if he wanted to try he couldn’t hide his smile,  
His children still mostly fit in his arms.  
Dick is the grand age of twenty-five and that sends a pang through his heart,  
That he has been out of the home as many years as Damian has been alive,  
That Jay his second peeled himself away from his beloved twin  
That the pretty young blonde is not legally his daughter and he cannot protect her.

_Two  
_

They’ve taken his car  
He went and got four hours of sleep and they ordered takeaway  
And went out in his car.  
He’s mad,  
The storm that used to be Batman roiling in his chest  
Like a demon  
Or terror.  
The sky is opening  
Lightning strikes,  
Same place,  
No thunder.  
Damian cowers under the table  
Cass is wrapped around him  
Steph is demanding answers  
He can hear she’s afraid.  
So is he.   
Wait, he orders, stay safe;  
His other three sons barrel in  
And he orders they stay.  
Jay straps on his guns,  
Bruce straps on his knives.  
He’s a deadly shot.  
Knives on his thighs and waist and wrists and across his chest  
Like armour.

_Three  
_  
The tarmac has buckled   
As if Superman has thrown a punch,  
Or perhaps Wonder Woman.  
A crowd has amassed.  
The cracked earth is frozen solid,  
He knows what devils can come to Earth.  
He meets Clark’s eyes.  
This might just be their undoing.  
Soil starts to shift,  
Something is digging out.  
Clark tells him to run,  
So he does.  
The creature, the machine, obliterates people  
Their dust sticks in his hair.  
He reaches home  
The image of his friends  
Dusted  
On him  
Cass reaches out  
Damian touches his shoulder.  
He flinches  
Darts to the sink  
Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff.  
“Dad?”   
“Food. Clothes. Supplies. Now.  
We leave this house in two minutes.”  
His children erupt into action,  
Damian is only six   
And Tim is fourteen  
And Steph is fifteen   
And Cass and Jay are twenty  
And Dick is twenty-five   
And the world is coming to an end  
And he doesn’t know what to do except run. 

_Four _

Jason steals a car with Tim’s help,   
Somehow makes it run.   
His children pile in  
Damian is crying.   
Cass pulls him into her  
Covers his eyes  
Tells him to breathe and breathe.   
Another machine has woken up  
Steph screams when she sees people vaporised   
He wishes he could take it away.  
They’re heading for Talia’s   
Because that’s all he can think of to do  
And they only found two boxes of food  
There are six children   
Three are under sixteen  
One is less than ten.   
He hasn’t stopped whimpering. 

_Five  
_

They’ve been driving four hours,   
Dodging stopped cars  
Not stopping for anyone   
He won’t risk it,  
Not when he sees the desperate greed.   
Talia’s drive is empty – of course,   
She went away.   
He hopes she’s okay  
(he still loves her)  
He isn’t sure how he’ll cope if she’s-  
Anyway.  
It’s time to feed the kids,  
But there’s little in the cupboards,  
And he hasn’t enough.  
They have some pasta,  
A little sauce,  
A loaf of bread.  
They best eat before they run out food.  
They need to sleep in the cellar,  
Because he isn’t certain they’d be safe  
If they slept upstairs  
What if the machines come back?

_Six  
_

He startles awake  
Sharp like he had to be in the past  
Back when he was a fighter  
Back with Talia  
Before.  
Something is moving  
No  
Something is crashing  
Crashing!  
He shoves Damian under the stairs  
Safest place  
Dick tucks in front  
Jason draws two guns  
There’s a sword on his belt  
He prefers his knives.  
Cass bares her teeth and slides on her dusters  
She needs nothing else.  
The whole place shudders  
They flinch and scream under the rubble.  
He can see smoke through the grate.

_Seven  
_

Don’t look, he tells Damian,  
Cover your eyes and hold to Dick.  
He scoops up Tim  
“Close your eyes”  
Steph is already out  
Crying.  
“We crashed. Lots dead.”  
A journalist in her van   
She shows him the lightning,   
And Dick’s eyes are sharp  
He sees the creatures.   
The machines were already here,   
Somehow,   
Under the cities.   
Oh god   
Talia -   
They have to get away,   
But he can’t think where  
Except   
There’s the lodge  
Up on one of the Great Lakes  
They could hunt  
Fish.   
He won’t think further ahead than that.


	2. Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next installment, parts eight to eleven.

_Eight_

They need to take a break  
It’s been three hours  
Tim is asleep.  
Dick stretches near the car,  
Jason wanders off a little,  
The girls go off together.  
“Damian! That’s far enough!”  
No response.  
He can let his youngest have five minutes  
To walk and enjoy the air,  
Still fresh here,  
No ashes,  
No machines.  
“I’m scared.”  
He opens his arms for his son  
His oldest and best friend,  
Who is still too young to be exposed to this  
(they are all too little and Clark is not enough)  
“Me too, chum.”  
What can they do? What can he possibly do for his children, this family of seven, in the face of the apocalypse?  
Nothing  
Everything.  
He’s missing Damian already and it’s been five minutes.  
“Find some food, Dickie, and wake Tim for a break.”  
He follows the sheep-path where Damian walked,  
Follows the tiny bootprints  
To the water’s edge and oh god, god, there are bodies  
Floating  
Drifting  
The river flows fast  
He slaps his hand over Damian’s eyes  
Cradles him close, presses his face into his neck  
“I told you to stay close.”

_Nine _  
They reach a ferry-port,  
And the crowd shoves in so close he can’t keep driving  
And he’s terrified despite his blades  
The hidden and blatant  
Not even Jay’s guns will help.  
He’s seen mobs and terror and desperation  
Too many times  
He knows how they work.  
He is torn out of his seat,  
Loses Timmy and Steph  
Cass is desperately trying to unbuckle Damian  
Dick appears on the diner roof.  
Jay fires into the air  
Flinch, flinch, flinchflinch.  
“Get away from the goddamn car.”  
He hasn’t lost the Batman growl  
In all these intervening years  
It still sends people scurrying like ants from fire.  
Cass tears Damian out  
And they shove into the diner  
He only had to throw three knives.  
They collapse into a booth  
All seven  
He drops his head and sobs at the gunshots as the car moves off  
What they hell will they do. 

_Ten_  
He can’t think what to do except keep walking  
Take it in turns carrying Tim and Damian  
He checks on Tim obsessively  
He doesn’t have a spleen  
There is nobody who would give them medicine.  
Damian insists on walking a stretch  
Clamped tight on his hand  
Everyone is starting to shake a little.  
He can’t erase the image of bodies floating  
Drifting  
Like leaves  
And Talia –  
No.  
They’re in the throbbing crowd now,  
Endless people shoving towards the ferry  
Desperate to live.  
He settles Damian tight on his back  
Tim clambers up onto Jason  
Cass and Steph, too quiet, cling together.  
He has three children under the age of fifteen.  
The glint of the dusters makes Cass sharper  
Makes Steph protected.  
“Bruce!”  
Who?  
“It’s me, Rachel? This is my daughter.”  
He smiles a little,  
Rachel is an old face  
And he trusts her.  
“Come with us, we’re going to the ferry.”  
She and her daughter join them  
Holding tight to him and each other.  
The ferry is crowded,  
Not enough space  
He has a family of seven plus two  
They won’t die here.  
“Bruce? It wasn’t Batman who saved me. It was you.”  
Yes.  
That’s the reminder he needed  
He isn’t lost like others  
He’s Bruce Wayne.  
They force their way through the crowds  
Helped by visible blades and hidden guns  
Until they’re at the edge  
Blocked by a line of men.  
They can’t get on.  
There – there’s a way,  
If they can slide around the barriers,  
And he knows they can.  
After all, he’s the twice damned Batman isn’t he.  
“Hold tight to me and be close,”  
And he leads the way  
With his children and Rachel and Rachel’s daughter clinging tight to him  
They shove their way on  
But –  
“Rachel! No, you have to let them on, there’s two of them, please! Rachel!”  
The ferry sets off  
And now he feels old and sore and his broken back hurts and his bust knee and everything but especially his soul  
Rachel is reaching for him  
He reaches back  
Too far  
Too far  
This is why he isn’t Batman.  
He falls to his knees, keeps Damian close  
Clinging like a limpet  
Sobbing.  
There’s a disturbance  
The ferry rocks  
There were no waves when they boarded  
It must be-  
A machine rears its head above them  
Looming  
Some lovecraftian nightmare from an addicts drug induced fever-dream.  
It reaches out to the boat  
“Jump. Dick, jump!”  
He shoves his children to the other side  
They jump  
And behind them  
In the cold water  
The ship burns  
People scream  
The machine whirrs  
The water almost swamps Damian  
They don’t have any meds for Tim  
He won’t let them die here. 

_Eleven_  
They drag themselves onto the shore  
Like wet cats  
All seven of them  
Cass and Steph curl around Tim  
He can’t make himself move  
Just stares at the sparks and flames  
And sounds of people dying.  
What little they had  
Is entirely gone.  
He hopes Rachel is okay  
Because he isn’t sure  
He can take any more  
He’s reaching the last of his reserves  
He has no choice  
But to get up  
And carry on.  
Damian has wandered off  
He hauls his feet under him  
Jason helps drag him to his feet  
He thinks he’s bust his knee again.  
Damian watches the machines  
The hills are lit by fire  
It’s apocalyptic  
Neither guns not knives will help now.  
The hill bursts into flame  
He drags Damian away  
“Come on.”  
They join the lines of people heading  
Away  
Who knows where  
But North  
To the cabin  
He hopes they can get there  
He won’t admit the doubt even to himself.  
Dick and Cass forge ahead  
Damian calls them back  
But they don’t slow.  
He can see the intent of them  
And he knows  
Whatever they have planned  
He won’t be able to hold them back  
Even if he tries.  
Tim stumbles  
Trips over a root  
Eyes a little glassy  
Jay hoists him up  
Piggybacking  
They both know they have to keep going.  
Steph holds tight to his hand  
But when she sees that  
She switches  
Sandwiching Damian in the middle  
Because he is seven  
And the family baby.


	3. Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for mild blood and a little horror in this chapter. Ambiguous happy? ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame is shared because I asked 'happy or sad' and they said 'ambiguous'. They know who they are.

_Twelve  
_  
They’ve been treading the road for hours   
Tramping the same path as a hundred others  
Damian is now on Bruce’s back  
The sky is lightening.  
The ground sets a-rumbling   
Like an earthquake   
Or another machine   
Or an army.   
Tanks and troops come rolling over the hills  
Hard faces and large guns,   
He clings tighter to Steph and Damian  
Draws nearer to Jason and Tim.   
Dick and Cass are poised to spring  
And he knows what it means   
He won’t be able to hold them back but he doesn’t have to let them go  
He will not see his children go to die.   
They’re running up, sprinting over the hill  
Before he can even set Damian down  
The rattle of machine guns fills his ears  
And fire climbs up the sky   
Jason runs too  
And Bruce will not lose three  
But Jason pushes him off   
And yells for him to go back  
Back to the other three   
Steph (fifteen)   
Tim (fourteen)   
Damian (seven)   
But these older ones are his children still  
And his best friends  
They are lost.   
He turns and scoops up Damian   
Hauls the others with him  
And they run  
Down  
Away from the fire and screams and rattling guns. 

_Thirteen  
_  
It takes a few hours  
Of always just a little further  
Of one more agonising stride   
He can feel his back grind where it broke   
His knee is stiffening by the minute.   
Steph and Tim drag each other along  
Tramping the path a few steps ahead  
With Damian holding his hand.   
They need to find a shelter for the night  
It smells like rain  
Or thunder  
And ashes.  
A path leads to what looks like a mostly intact church  
Silhouetted against the blue  
Like a symbol of hope  
Or sanctuary  
Shelter.  
As they draw near  
He  
Steph (15)  
Tim (14)  
And Damian (7)  
He realises Dami had his birthday yesterday  
His little boy is seven  
His tiny baby  
And look  
Take a look around  
At the world they’ve come to know  
It seems no more than a crazy circus show.  
There’s a man lying on the steps  
A shattered cross nearby  
He must be a priest:  
He looks like a corpse.   
Another man steps out,  
Bearing a gun  
A few-days-old beard  
(like everyone else).  
He waves them in  
And lets them drink  
Gives the kids each a tin of beans. 

_Fourteen  
_  
The children settle down  
Tim is humming as he tugs a blanket around   
And Steph is singing  
Little child  
Be not afraid.   
It’s quite an old lullaby   
But not one he ever learned  
Maybe Talia knew it  
But  
Well, it doesn’t matter.   
Damian snuggles down and he smiles  
His little boy  
His precious darlings.   
“Whiskey?”  
Oh yes please.   
He could do with a snifter   
Just a little   
To remind of normality   
And after  
The man pulls out cards  
A deck of cards   
And they play  
Mindless games  
Cheating and making each other huff a laugh   
For a moment   
At the end of the world  
He feels almost human. 

_Fifteen  
_  
He has the weight of a daughter on each arm  
The small stretch of Damian over his ribs  
Like a cat   
What woke him?   
The man, tapping   
Tapping  
Wake up, Morse code  
Bruce is conditioned still to be ready even before he hears the sound.   
He slides out of bed, leaves Steph and Tim to lie very very still under the blankets   
There is not room for Damian   
So it’s them three  
A madman  
A child  
And a man who was once a warrior and knight   
Running in the dark  
Whilst an eye  
An eye like an eel  
Dark and sinuous   
Twists its way through the cellar in hunt of them  
They hide behind a mirror  
Like mice;  
Dami’s foot slides,   
The eel-eye is looking and coming back  
Hush-hush little baby don’t you cry  
Damian’s boot is left in the eel-eye’s sight  
So they can run and hide anew  
The eel-eye slowly leaves  
He sighs   
Wipes Dami’s tears  
Pulls Steph and Tim up  
Well done, hush hush now   
Be still  
Or they might try to come back. 

_Sixteen  
_  
They’ve managed to get another hour’s rest  
Despite the noise  
Drilling   
Heavy stepping machines  
The heat rays  
Those awful heat rays.   
The mad man points out of the grate  
The creatures are –   
Something.   
Harvesting maybe  
Or spreading  
A red mist to feed the strange red vines he noticed spring up  
On dead land   
Clogging rivers  
All through the countryside.   
A horrendous red mist  
The horror in the man’s eyes   
He thinks he knows what is happening   
The red coats the hand he holds up  
Splashing over his jaw  
Blood.   
Sharp and metallic.   
Blood.   
The machines in the distance are catching people   
Eating them?   
Using their blood  
Oh god  
Oh god  
“Not my blood,”   
Hisses the man  
And he scurries down to his tunnel  
Too short of a tunnel   
He can’t go deep enough to hide his voice from the creatures.   
“Not my blood  
Not my blood   
No no, not me”  
This is it.   
He has reached his line  
The break point  
Where he shatters  
Knowing if he follows   
He will not be himself   
When he had done what he must do.   
“Steph? You know that lullaby?   
Sing for me?”  
He wraps torn felt over their eyes  
Steph   
Tim, coughing pale Tim,   
And his baby Damian who sits on Steph’s lap.   
“Which lullaby baba?”   
“Any, Dami.”  
Little child   
Be not afraid   
He walks backwards to the door  
Though rain pounds harshly against the glass  
He will not be himself  
Like an unwanted stranger  
His children will know it  
There is no danger  
He will cross this line for them.

_Seventeen  
_  
Steph finishes the song just before he gets back to them.  
They have not removed their blindfolds.  
They’ve been crying.

Eighteen  
The world is red  
The weed and the blood is everywhere   
And he is aware of himself  
Silhouetted  
A figure on the top of a red hill  
Fire climbs into the sky  
Smoke weaves in the wind  
It’s a Batman pose.   
He tucks Tim onto his back  
He’s caught a cold  
Not sneezing or too noisy yet   
But sick all the same and he can’t walk.   
Dami and Steph hang close  
He thinks they know what he’s done  
They’ll deal with that when they’re safe  
Not before.   
A tripod bears down on them  
They hide  
Pressed to the earth  
Not breathing   
Wait   
Wait   
Praying it doesn’t pick them up  
Into the spider-like basket  
He thinks he heads someone screaming  
Blood comes down on them like summer rain  
Fast and heavy  
Then the machine is gone  
Striding over the next hill  
And they get up  
Keep walking  
Hunted like deer or rabbits or foxes  
Stumbling and scurrying.   
It’s something over an hour   
Until he catches sight of a city   
He isn’t sure where they are now  
But the city sign will tell them. 

_Nineteen  
_  
Tim’s woozy cough is now a bad cold  
Maybe the flu   
He sneezes over and over  
Gasping after coughing fits  
He himself has taken to wiping his oozing eyes.  
Dami and Steph follow close  
Tramping in his and Tim’s steps  
The silence threads them on  
He isn’t sure what it means  
But it’s broken continuously   
Sneeze, hack, wheeze  
Tim’s small body shivering on his back.   
They peak a hill  
And there  
Below  
Like an oasis  
Lies the city   
Coated in the twisting red weed  
With a stationary machine  
Silhouetted amongst the rubble.  
They slide down the dew-damp grass  
He is careful to hold Tim up  
Even as Damian requires his attention  
It looks like Steph is fine  
She stays close  
He is so proud of her  
And when they reach the track  
Join the stream of people  
He tells her  
Hugging her close  
Watching the road  
She deserves better than him. They all do.  
All these people are hungry and tired  
Afraid  
Some, like he and his, are bloodstained  
He doesn’t think about it  
About using a murky puddle and rags on Damian  
Steph with handfuls of clean hay scrubbing at Tim.  
They go through a checkpoint  
Which is more for them to give their names  
And someone checks to see if they’re missing  
Or someone in this city has asked for them.  
Nobody has  
That’s what he expected  
But he crushes the pang of not having Dick and Cass and Jason  
Their names are not in the register.  
A soldier directs them  
Through the city  
To the airfield  
But he notices as they pass the weed is crisped  
Grey even  
It snaps into his hand and crumbles  
Why?  
The crowd streams on through the streets  
Dragging them further  
He sees an alley he remembers  
Talia has a house here, in another district.  
It will have food and medicine and blankets  
Tim needs to be there  
If he can get away from the anxious crowd.  
The machine in the rubble remains still.  
“What happened?”  
But nobody can or will tell him  
The scientist in him begs to dissect  
Take apart and study  
But the father in him has always prevailed  
He’d dearly like to see the alien closer.  
“Mr Wayne?”  
Who’s asking?  
“The machine – we got it open.”  
So they go  
All four  
(not seven maybe never again but no no he will get them back they will come home)  
To the machine in the rubble of a large yard  
A garage maybe  
And it is open, just a bit,  
Soldiers prying it with bars  
So he sets Tim on a boulder  
Orders Steph in charge  
Tells Damian to stay nearby  
(how could she have wanted that child to be a soldier, how could anyone make a child into a soldier)  
So he goes  
Does as he used to  
Analyses and studies and concludes  
Picks up a bar and delivers as hard a blow as he can  
The door hinge shatters  
Everyone except him leaps back  
He draws a long knife from his belt  
Draws short ones from his socks  
Shifting balance  
He feels dangerous  
As indeed he is.  
The alien is caught  
A sharp tug  
And it slides to the ground  
Limp  
Dead?  
Not quite  
He crouches  
Blades to its head and hands and neck  
“It has a cold”  
Yes, he is correct  
The alien has the common cold  
“Superman.”  
A rush  
Clark is here  
“Look. They’re susceptible to a cold.”  
The slow smile of Clark matches his own  
They’re two heroes together  
Hope at last.

_Twenty  
_  
The weed too is killed by the virus  
So he lets Tim sneeze all over it  
It isn’t good  
But he wants his planet back thank you very much  
So he really doesn’t care.  
They reach Talia’s house  
He thinks it’s empty  
But then the door opens  
And she’s there  
Talia  
He stills  
She stands calm at the top of the steps  
And then Damian steps around him  
And she smiles  
They run to each other  
And she holds tight to her son  
Bruce misses her so much.  
“I think you’d better come in, beloved.”  
God save him, he’s weak  
“Of course, love.”  
So they do, go into her house  
And there  
On the screen display  
Is a set of lights  
Six blue and one green  
The green is Damian  
And three blue  
Several hours of walking away  
It’s them.  
Cass  
Jason  
Dick  
They’re alive  
Safe.  
“They can maybe come here, you can all stay,”  
Offers Talia  
And  
God help him and forgive him  
He kisses her  
He never really let her go  
And now she’s getting his children back  
And he is grateful  
Alive  
Alive  
Alive!


End file.
